Results from a Survey of Global Natural Gas Flaring from Visible Infrared Imaging

Radiometer Suite Data Chris Elvidge

Earth Observation Group NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information

Boulder, Colorado chris.elvidge@noaa.gov

Mikhail Zhizhin, Kimberly Baugh, Feng-Chi Hsu

CIRES

May 18, 2016

Why monitor global flaring

• MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification) of national carbon emission reductions under the recently signed Paris Agreement.

• Tracking progress towards “Zero routine flaring by 2030” initiative of WB and UN.

• Calculating fossil fuel carbon intensities for Low Carbon Fuel Standards.

• As a tool for exploration for waste natural gas for capture / utilization.

• As an input to carbon emission spatial databases.

Gas flares are readily

detected in the VIIRS

M10 spectral band

3

M11 Approved

4

VIIRS Nightfire (VNF): A global multispectral fire product Nine channels of data are collected at night

Nighttime collection of channel 11 is expected to start in 2016

VIIRS Nightfire (VNF) • A multispectral “fire product” developed by the NOAA

Earth Observation Group. • Makes use of two near infrared (NIR), a short-wave infrared

(SWIR), and two mid-wave infrared spectral bands. • The NIR and SWIR bands were designed for daytime

imaging of reflected sunlight. IR emitters can be readily identified at night in these spectral bands.

• Daily files are in csv and kmz formats available at: http://ngdc.noaa.gov/eog/viirs/download_viirs_fire.html

• Publications: http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/5/9/4423 http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/1/14

Why Multispectral?

To get at the Planck curves! These are used to calculate temperature, source size and radiant heat.

Daily files are in csv and kmz formats 6

Typical gas

flare

Background

Typical Biomass Burning Detection

Lower temperature than gas flaring. Often these have larger source size than gas flares. North Dakota

7

Global Atlas of Gas Flaring http://ngdc.noaa.gov/eog/viirs/download_global_flare.html

• 2012-2014 • Flaring sites identified based on temperature and

persistence. • Flared gas volume calibration developed based

Cedigaz national level data. • 17K flaring sites identified. • Russia leads in flared gas volume. • USA leads in the number of flaring sites. • The largest flare is in Venezuela.

Calibration with Cedigaz data

USA Flaring

Russia Flaring

Largest Flare

Summary

• A new atlas of global gas flaring is now available. – 17K flaring sites identified. – Russia leads in flared gas volume. – USA leads in the number of flaring sites. – The largest flare is in Venezuela.

• Error bars on flared gas volume estimates are high, probably due to untraceable errors in the Cedigaz data. The calibration could be improved using a test flare facility.

• The project is currently on hold due to funding hiatus.